Hue Jackson says he and Dalton are “joined at the hip”

Posted by Mike Florio on July 11, 2014, 8:32 AM EDT

AP

The at-time kooky effort to coax a higher level of play out of Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton in his fourth season has generated the kookiest observations yet from his new offensive coordinator, Hue Jackson.

“We are joined at the hip,” Jackson recently told Mike Silver of NFL.com. “We are tethered together. And I’ll jump off a building with this guy, because I believe in the things he’s trying to accomplish with his career, and I think I can help him.”

Yes, they’re joined at the hip. Unless Dalton and the Bengals do so well under Jackson’s tutelage that Jackson gets offered a head-coaching job elsewhere. At that point, the twins will become unconjoined and Dalton will be on his own.

Unless, of course, the Bengals don’t sign Dalton to a long-term deal and decide not to use the franchise tag (which would cost north of $16 million or so for 2015), which then would allow Jackson to bring his protege to Jackson’s new place of business. (Or maybe the Bengals would use the tag, knowing that Jackson would try to engineer another Carson Palmer-style trade for Dalton.)

Jackson will cross that bridge and/or jump off that building when the time comes, since it falls squarely in the category of good problems to have. Until then, Jackson needs to find a way get the most out of Dalton — which means pressing the right buttons and setting the right mood.

“The first thing he said was, ‘You’re my guy. We’re gonna do this thing together,'” Dalton told Silver. “‘You’re the guy that’s gonna take us to where we want to go.’ It’s exactly what I wanted to hear, and exactly what this team needs. You want to know, from the top down, that they’ve got your back.”

Every smart team has its starting quarterback’s back. Until it doesn’t. The goal is make the starting quarterback think the team has his back so that his play won’t suffer as he worries about whether his next incompletion or interception or other bad decision will be his last one.

For Dalton, there’s only one way for the Bengals to prove they’ve truly got his back. But that would require a financial investment that owner Mike Brown may not currently be willing to make. Until that happens, it’s all talk.

Which may be just good enough to let Jackson talk his way into another head-coaching job.

59 responses to “Hue Jackson says he and Dalton are “joined at the hip””

It’s funny how Dr. Rusty never mentioned the lack of receivers the Bengals had UNTIL after the season was over and Dalton put another loss on his now 0-3 playoff record. Even funnier is when you have a top 5 receiver named A.J. Green and expect other fans to sympathize you. 0-3

lifelong Bengals fan here who watched both Superbowls…we will never win a playoff game with Dalton playing QB…the defense is very good, the skill positions on offense are too, the only missing piece is a competent QB…

This isn’t intended to be a jab at Dalton, but getting to the superbowl or winning one usually has a profound impact on your contract status; ie Joe Flacco and Colin Kaepernick. I am sure Russel Wilson is due a huge pay day in the near future.

Great so this guy is a nut since he’ll jump off a building, when obviously there’s no good reason to jump off the top of a building if you can find another way. I can understand if it was a fire or some kind of emergency, but then naturally anybody would jump so that can’t be what he meant. He is just showing that he’s prone to making a disastrous decision because of his blinding bias and a subjective emotional attachment. That’s not healthy and more likely to cost a team games than somebody who is taking on a more professional and serious objective role in their job. This team doesn’t have much edge or technical savvy or professional mentoring.

For those youngsters out there learning to play football, if your buddy or idol jumps off a building or a bridge and has some kind of holy vision for why it’s a great idea or some other explanation that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, please don’t jump, and try to stop them from doing it so they don’t get killed. Cherish your life, don’t put it in the hands of a fool!

A good QB coach would say something that is more appropriate in general and actually helpful to their QB something like…

“If you are about to make a disastrous or suicidal decision, well don’t expect me to follow you, because I’m not in the business of lousy QB decisions. I can teach you how to play the game the right way, but that’s the only way I deal it out. Either you can take my help and build off of it, or you can’t, but I’m not going to follow a bad QB, I only make good QBs become great.”

The bengals have always been awful and are the worst franchise in the nfl, below the raiders lions browns etc. The only thing more certain than manning pulling his annual choke job is dalton losing in the first round.

Honestly, isn’t this the way all teams should treat their QBs? It doesn’t really matter whether Dalton is or isn’t the long term solution in Cinci but you sabotage the season if you don’t show confidence in him. He’ll probably never be a Peyton Manning but could he be good enough to eventually lead a good team to a Super Bowl – I think so. Hue and Marvin are taking the right approach.

“The bengals have always been awful and are the worst franchise in the nfl, below the raiders lions browns etc.”

Cheer up, man. I know you are depressed that the Ravens have started holding team meetings at the Baltimore County Jail, but that’s just silly to say about the team that won the division and eliminated your team from the playoffs.

Humbleminded85……that you Chad?
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lol who’s Chad? I’m the guy who saw Dr RustBelt go out of his way all year this past season and troll every Ravens article just to end up fading away after his “elite” guy Dalton choked again… for the third time. Search teams are still working vigorously around the clock to find this heartbroken, delusional, and most of all fantasy stat driven Bungel fan. So me and a few others have made sure that he doesn’t forget how stupid he sounded all year long. Even know he’s been no where to be found we all know he reads every last article up here. He’s reading this now while thinking of a comeback but sadly he knows that numbers simply do not lie. Take care Rusty and as always… 0-3.

Here’s the problem (which no one seems to ever bring up): the Bengals have no alternative to Dalton, nor will they likely have one next year or the year after. They’re too good to be picking at the top of the draft and there are no free-agent quarterbacks out there better than Dalton. I’ve been a Bengals fan since they were formed in 1968 and have seen their best and worst QB’s (and believe me, that’s a pretty big range); but the fact is that Dalton’s stats are very, very good and have improved each year. He’s played awful in 3 playoff games; but he’s the only QB in their history to actually play in 3 straight playoff games. My guess is that Marvin Lewis and Mike Brown realize that, despite the feeling that Dalton is just average, they have no reasonable alternative, so they’re going to re-sign him for Cutler (good comparison) money and keep upgrading the line and skill players, hoping for a better game plan and performance out of him in the next playoff game.

I didn’t see too much QB development when he was with the Raiders so when did Hue become such a QB guru.

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Actually, this guy turned Bruce Gradkowski and Jason Campbell into a competent starter for an Oakland team with a poor o-line and no elite talents. Remember how the Raiders started 7-4 in 2011? They collapsed to finish 8-8 and miss the playoffs after Campbell broke his collarbone, and ultimately, terrible defense did them in (as it still does today). They were also 8-8 in 2010, when Jackson was the OC and starting Gradkowski. That’s extremely impressive, considering that Oakland has won 8 games combined since he left without anything resembling a competent NFL offense.

Does this mean that if another team hires Jackson as HC, they’ll let him indulge in lunacy by allowing him to trade multiple premium draft picks for Dalton the way he messed up the Raiders with the Carson Palmer deal?

There’s been a lot of bluster from Jackson, but at least he has Dalton’s back. Pumping up Dalton and hoping he’ll finally overcome his disastrous playoff performances is really his only option for 2014. If Dalton regresses anyways, then the Bengals can move on next year (because who’s content to lose in the first round year after year). There were some troubling aspects of his inconsistent play in the regular season too, like losing important games against Miami and Pittsburgh when a bye was on the table and they had the tiebreaker over NE. But even Joe Flacco once caught fire for 4 games and won a Super Bowl before reverting back to Flacco, so why not Dalton? At least, that’s probably what everybody in Cincinnati is thinking.

Pretty similar..Playoffs are also fairly similar..No question Dalton needs to step it up come playoff time, but so does the whole Bengal team including the coaching staff. But there is no question the numbers are there and the numbers have gotten better each year for Dalton.
It puts things into a little better perspective when you see them side by side.
sorry if the numbers don’t line up correctly.

Dalton didn’t shrink when he ended Baltimore’s season in WEEK 17 to win the AFC North.

In the playoffs… it would be nice not to get sacked 3 times and be on the run each play.

Don’t be afraid to watch and analyse the games.
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Ok Rusty let’s analyze… 3rd quarter Cincy down by 4 on a 3rd and 14. Dalton decides to take off running and manages not only to dive for cover head first which makes him 100% susceptible to being hit still but manages to fumble the ball right away with out even being touched. Giving the ball up in that particular situation is not what winning QB’s do. Next play… still 3rd quarter with about a minute to go… Dalton fails to read the all out blitz presnap thus not recognizing his hot read, runs back to avoid the pressure and throws a classic Dalton soft pass off his back foot to an awaiting Shareece Wright. It was a great catch but sadly folks he plays for the chargers and apparently those type of passes are frowned upon in the game call football. Last but not least with about 10 min to go in the 4th down by 20-10, Dalton drops back to pass to Tyler Eifert with defender Melvin Ingram draped all over him but the Red Rocket was convinced that he could turn the ball into a ghost for half a second and make the pass through the defenders body. This attempt as you can imagine didn’t go well. The moral of this story is simple folks, don’t tell people to analyze something that’s available on Youtube at a moments notice. Take care Rusty

The Orioles have been to the postseason once this century. The Yankees have won the World Series twice this century. Does that make the Orioles awful? Does it make the Yankees better than the Orioles this year?

Remedial classes in logic and debate are recommended. You sound frighteningly similar to StillerFan. I want better than that for you.

Let me get this right Rusty… I worded everything in a transparent matter in which you and any other person could correct me where I was wrong, yet you take the approach you just did???? No “hey Humble this is where your wrong and let me explain why” just a “thanks for admitting you don’t watch games”??? Really???? First off I watched your playoff game and every other AFN North game just has I always do, and never did I say or “admit” differently. Secondly, what about that fumble man? What’s your excuse for that? How about him not reading that blitz and throwing a costly interception? Any thoughts on that? Was that also because Dalton doesn’t have a probowl left guard or something? Did he attempt to throw to Eifert but instead directly to Ingram because Sanu isn’t a good receiver? Excuse excuse excuse excuse… Dalton didn’t single handily lose that game as it is a team sport and the defense didn’t show up, but man did he sure do his best not to help win. He slid face first man and fumbled lol That play had people across America saying “maybe the butt fumble wasn’t so bad” 0-3

I am happy with Hue’s actions and commitment so far. The days of Jay Gruden “the cheerful ‘yes’ man” are over. Hue will speak his mind. No more abandoning the run. Hue will call plays to suit the strengths of his players. This is going to be a strong season.

Back to the topic here. What’s Hue supposed to say? Name one OC who ever made derogatory comments about his QB. Personally, I’m looking forward to this season. If Jackson could make the god awful Raiders a competitive team with the bunch of clowns he worked with up there, I’m very excited to see what he can do with a talented Bengals team. The biggest difference will be, IMO, not abandoning the run at the first sign of trouble and putting it on your young QB to throw 50 -60 passes a game. Your asking for INT’s and turnovers! I’m reserving my judgement on Dalton until after this season. I think Gruden tried to put way to much on him way to quick! That racist team in Washington will soon realize this!

Remedial classes in logic and debate are recommended. You sound frighteningly similar to StillerFan. I want better than that for you.

Ah but Steeler fans can say they have won a playoff game in the last twenty something years. Logic or not a Bungal is a Bungal. What’s better than six rings ….oh wait you wouldn’t know you don’t even have one.

There’s way too many Dalton believers on here. I’m sick of seeing Manning and Brady dominating the AFC and would much rather see the Bengals represent the AFC. But I’ve seen all of Dalton’s pathetic playoff games and 1 TD with 6 INT in 3 playoff losses, in addition to several poor performances down the stretch that cost Cincy a bye last year, give me no reason to believe in him. The defense has played well in the playoff losses. Unfortunately, by turning the ball over and making poor throws and decisions, Dalton is not doing his part. I’d love to see him do better, but where is the evidence to believe this will be the case, outside of maybe Hue Jackson getting something better (or at least smarter) out of him.